Friday, 26 August 2011

WHB Chocolate beetroot brownies

The first time I went to make these beetroot brownies last week I only had two eggs in the fridge and one was for Sylvia's boiled egg in the morning. The other egg went into an apple and date cake that then accompanied E into work to a meeting where it was gobbled up. We bought more eggs and I made the beetroot brownies. Finally! They were worth waiting over three years to make.

The recipe came from Karen Martini in the Sunday Age in 2008. I meant to keep the page with the recipe. I lost it. Fortunately Cindy and Michael posted it. I never forgot it. I just took a while to get there. Good intentions and all that! After unsuccessfully fiddling with Kari's brownies, I stuck to the recipe.

It was fantastic: fudgy and pink! I loved it. So did my mum. Sylvia took an occasional bite. E thought it was too beetrooty. I sort of know what he means. They weren't rich, chocolate or gooey but I loved the dense texture that comes from combining vegetable, nuts and chocolate. It felt a little more healthier than the average brownie but very pleasing nevertheless.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the vanilla, nutmeg and flour. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined. Fold in melted chocolate (at room temperature), ground almonds and grated beetroot.

Spoon the brownie mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out cleanly.

Optional: Once the brownie has cooled, drizzle the melted chocolate over the top before slicing and serving. Ours lasted almost a week - the top went a bit soft but the cake remained moist and fudgy.

17 comments:

I bet these were delicious. There is something very satisfying I find about using healthful ingredients in cakes. And I do like the additional depth of colour that beetroot brings to a chocolate cake. I haven't actually baked with them this year, which is a little remiss of me as I've got loads of beetroot down at the plot which I can't seem to keep up with.

Oh, I'm really glad you loved this recipe! As you noted it's not a super-chocolatey brownie. I remember liking that I could taste the beetroot and almonds just as much. I'm way overdue to make it again myself. :-)

Thanks Joanne - it always feels good to be adding to your daily veg consumption by eating cake!

Thanks Choclette - many beetroots in your garden sounds like a wonderful thing - they are so good with chocolate but I have held off using the rest of the bunch because I am waiting for a meal where the beetroot colour wont overwhelm the meal - so I understand why they might be neglected

Thanks Chele - baking with beetroot is a wonderful thing - it gives the same sort of sweetness and moistness that carrot gives - I highly recommend you try it

Thanks Cindy - definitely a recipe that I hope to repeat - I liked how the texture was so right for the brownie without tasting really decadent - great for the lunchbox

Thanks Hannah - I didn't use an apron when I grated the beetroot but I do take care not to ever wear really light colours when cooking with it

Thanks Katie - I was surprised that the colour was still quite prominent (though not all of my photos were quite as pink as the ones I chose)

Thanks Lorraine - interesting to hear that - I am not a huge fan of karen martini and haven't bought her book, yet I have tried a few of her recipes with great success

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Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.